What are the benefits of receiving a Reiki Treatment?
The benefits of a Reiki Treatment include: Deep relaxation, reduced stress and anxiety, a release of physical tension and assisting with the healing process. It calms the emotions, energises you when you feel drained and helps you recover from illness.

What are the benefits of practicing Reiki?Anne2013-04-05T22:26:39+01:00

What are the benefits of practicing Reiki?
Working with Reiki and doing energy work on yourself, regularly, is the foundation of your Reiki practice

The energy exercises that you will be practicing have the following effects. They will:

1. Clear and cleanse your energy system
2. Help to move your energy system more into a state of balance
3. Help to ground you
4. Help to build up your personal energy reserves
5. Develop your ability as a channel for Reiki
6. Help to develop your sensitivity to the flow of energy
7. Help to develop your intuitive side

Reiki 1 – you will learn to sense and work with Ki for self-healing and to help friends and family. You will learn the codes of practice, Reiki meditations, breathing techniques and hands on healing.

Reiki 2 – you will learn to strengthen your knowledge and connection to Ki. Learn the Reiki symbols for room cleansing, distance healing and additional deeper healing of self and others.

Reiki 3 – you will deepen your connection with Reiki for further personal and spiritual development. Learn the master symbol and work on mastering yourself. With the tools to empower yourself you can continue to help others with their healing process and if you choose to further the training you can learn to attune others to Reiki.

What is Reiki?
Rei – ‘Universal’ Ki – ‘Life force energy’
Reiki can be used as a hands-on healing therapy, where the therapist acts as a channel for the Reiki energy and places the hands on the seven main energy centres (or chakras) of the body. It is a gentle therapy that helps people to relax, cope better with stress, increase energy levels and eliminate unwanted toxins.

Reiki is more than a healing method for self-healing and the healing of others, it develops your spirituality giving you the ability to heal your body and mind for a deeper understanding of yourself.

The word Reiki comes from the words Raku-Kei, it is the ancient art and science of spiritual self-improvement. Reiki originated in Tibet, where it was used to purify the body and mind and was later re-discovered by Dr Usui in Japan.

What benefits are there to meditation?
Various studies have proved that meditation lowers blood pressure, reduces cholesterol levels and improves your overall health. Studies have also shown meditation to have, reduced psoriasis – a skin condition that can worsen with stress and also relieve pain. And if that is not impressive enough we can even get the same boost from meditation that we get from chocolate! The active ingredient in chocolate – phenylalanine enhances production of neurotransmitters that keep us happy. Well meditation can also boost the body’s natural concentrations of phenylalanine – so we can be happy without the extra calories!

Why do I find it difficult to practice meditation?
With meditation we are trying to retrain ourselves to be focussed and stay in the present moment, but our mind likes to resist. You may experience challenging emotions or a restless mind or feel uncomfortable during your meditation, this is the minds way of trying to avoid doing something that it finds difficult. It is much easier to allow the mind to dash around in it’s usual chaotic way, rather than to keep it’s attention or focus. Being aware that your mind is experiencing resistance will help you to overcome it. Bringing your awareness to your thoughts and feelings will help you to overcome the problems as they arise and with continued practice you can achieve a calmer state of mind.

What is meditation?
Meditation could be described as mindfulness or awareness: being relaxed but focussed and aware on what you are doing right now.

Whenever you act with awareness you are also meditating. There are different methods such as breath control or candle gazing, however you can also be walking or listening to music and still be meditating. Whatever activity you take part in where your mind is free from other thoughts is meditation.

Meditation teaches you to stay in the present moment, returning your thoughts to a focus point, rather than letting it dash around untamed. A good place to start is with the breath, focussing your attention here helps you develop concentration and calm the mind.
Meditation also gives you the chance to sit calmly and relax the mind and body. By focusing the mind on a candle or visualisation for example you can free your mind of busy thoughts, which helps to rest the brain and reduce stress. Meditation reduces the heart rate and gives the body a chance to revive. Continued practice can lead to a different view on life, bringing happiness, harmony and inner peace.

What are the benefits of Yoga, Pranayama and Relaxation?Anne2013-04-05T22:17:54+01:00

How do I practice relaxation?
There are two types of relaxation: progressive and autogenic.

Progressive relaxation is a way of focussing your attention on each part of the body, being aware of any tension before relaxing that part and moving on. Physically tensing and relaxing each area of the body, helps focus the mind and stop thoughts wandering as well as allows the body to let go of any stress or strain. Progressive relaxation draws our awareness to each part of the body and encourages it to relax. Taking one part at a time physically tensing and relaxing the body part and letting thoughts drift away provides a very effective way to relax.

Autogenic relaxation is where you tell yourself that you are relaxed and the body follows. Suggesting to the mind that you feel relaxed and calm allows the body to respond in the same way. It is used to enhance the physical effects of progressive relaxation, working a bit like a Mantra or positive thought that you repeat to yourself, the continued suggestion that each body part feels relaxed and heavy results in the physical body responding in the same way. This can have a calming and soothing effect on the mind and give the body a chance to let go, relaxing tight muscles and relieving aches and pains.

What is relaxation?
Yoga practice is known to have calming effects on the body and mind, releasing tension in the body, slowing the breath and balancing the nervous system. However relaxation takes this a step further until there is no longer any tension in the body.

Yoga relaxation aims to completely relax the muscles, internal organs, glandular system, lungs, heart, nervous system and the mind. We can consciously control most of our muscles to create movement, but internally, the muscles in our organs can only be controlled when we practice certain yogic techniques. These techniques allow us to completely relax letting go of any tension or tightness in the body. Therefore relaxation is basically the absence of tension or tightness.

How do Yoga Breathing techniques benefit the nerves?Anne2013-04-05T22:10:08+01:00

How do Yoga Breathing techniques benefit the nerves?
Pranayama can improve concentration, help to control emotions and relax the body. Emotions such as joy, love and forgiveness naturally create slow, smooth breaths, which bring a sense of peace and harmony. We can recreate these feelings through consciously changing the breath. As the nervous system deals with both the emotions and the breath, then by bringing the breath under control we can also control the emotions.

This has huge benefits especially if suffering from painful emotions such as sadness, anger and resentment. The breath can bring the nervous system back into balance by reducing the effect of the sympathetic nervous system which activates during the fight and flight response and stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system to promote rest and relaxation.

What is Pranayama?
Pranayama stands for breath (Prana) control (Ayama), it helps to cleanse and strengthen the body and mind through the control of prana or vital energy. By consciously controlling the breath more oxygen is able to enter the body, which helps to burn nutrients and provide the body with more energy. Deep breathing can provide extra oxygen to the brain, which can relief tension headaches and have a calming effect on the mind. It can improve concentration, help to control emotions and relax the body.

When performing Yoga movements, what would pain indicate?Anne2013-04-05T22:05:05+01:00

If you haven’t practiced yoga or taken part in any exercise for some time then it is natural to feel slightly stiff, tight or awkward during a yoga class. However this should improve with practice and the postures become easier as you work on your flexibility. You may find that you are more flexible in some poses than others, but those areas that are less flexible can gently be worked on to slowly improve over time.

Even if you feel some resistance to the poses, there should definitely not be any pain in the body, so you shouldn’t force, strain or push yourself into postures. It is ok to take your time flow gracefully into each pose and only go as far as your body feels able to go. If pain is experienced then it is likely you have pushed your body too hard and the muscles have been stretched further than they should be, this could result in injury or damage to the muscle fibre.

Everyone practicing yoga should only go as far as they feel physically comfortable; pushing beyond this limit may cause injury.
With continued yoga practice you will begin to become more aware of your body, noticing where things feel comfortable or if there is any strain.

How does Yoga benefit the body?
Practicing yoga movements cleanses the body by increasing circulation and removing toxins. Strength and stamina can improve with regular practice of twists, stretches, bends and inversions. Yoga practice tones the whole body, strengthening bones and muscles, improving breathing, correcting posture and increasing energy.
There are also many other benefits to practicing yoga including building a healthy nervous system, stimulating the endocrine system, which is in charge of the hormones as well as improving the function of the digestive system. These are all benefits for our internal bodies, which are less obvious than the physical benefits to joints and muscles. However the internal organs can also benefit through being massaged and stimulated during the yoga asana’s.
Deep breathing practiced during yoga exercise also has its benefits, it increases oxygen into the body which allows you to exercise more efficiently.